Beyond the stars and city lights
by Nevertheend127
Summary: Cinder and Kai don't really fight. Scarlet says its unnatural, that two people as different as they are with so many varying opinions don't at least knock heads once in a while. (A lot of Ficlets and unconnected drabble.)


**Hi! This is a collection of unrelated head cannons and the like. I was blocked writing my other Lunar Chones fic, so I just started writing junk, and this monster happened. Let me know which ones are your favorites! Also, written on wordpad so sorry for attrocious spelling.**

* * *

Kai and Cinder don't ever fight. Like, ever. Scarlet claims it's unnatural, because they're very different people with a lot of varying ideas and there should at least be _some_ conflict.  
But there isn't really all that much drama. Thorne and Scarlet agree that both Kai and Cinder are aliens, but Cress has a different idea. She says its because they're just so in love.

* * *

Cress is short. Very short. Which is not her fault, 'for-your-information-Carswell,' as she was malnourished on a satalite for most of her life.  
So she has trouble reaching things sometimes. Cress is fairly certain Thorne does it on purpose- hiding the green roseberry tea she likes so much at the very top of the shelf and the like, all so she'll need his help.  
"Thorne, stop smirking and help me!" She snaps finally, leaping upwards and making a final swipe for the box on top of the fridge.  
"You're adorable." Thorne leans back against the doorframe, hands tucked in his pockets, and smiles.

* * *

Scarlet remembers very little about the day Levanna fell. But she remembers being rescued. Remembers feeling Wolf's tears on her neck, his solid arms locked around her, their legs tangled together from where they'd collapsed into a heap on the floor of the Rampion.  
She remembers his apologies, his relief, his love- his promises to never leave her again.

* * *

Sometimes it's all too much. Responsibilities, _proximities_, and Kai is deeply devoted to his people and he adores his queen, but there are times he needs to get away.  
He's always retreated to his bedroom, or his garden, or that empty fourth-story office that no one uses anymore. He still does.  
But now he takes Cinder with him.

* * *

"You need to relax." Cinder insists, head in her hand and smiling up at him from where she's sprawled across the couch, distracting him while he should be working.  
"Not now." Kai's fingers flick across the netscreen, analyzing strings of code and scrolling information. "I've got a broken economy to fix."  
"Then fix it later." She suggests.  
Spades, she's distracting. And pretty. And so, so much fun. And clever. And...  
Kai had meant to spend the afternoon working, he really did. But he made the mistake of letting Cinder into his office, and then accidently played digital poker with her and Scarlet for the better part of two hours.

* * *

Jacin is kind of a jerk. There's really no getting around that much. He supposedly has this sensitive side that Cinder keeps hearing about, but so far what she's seen isn't that impressive.  
But Winter loves him, and contrary to what many people believe, Cinder does love Winter. She's willing to let the guy be Prince Regent if Winter absolutely trusts him.

* * *

Scarlet is not a morning person.  
This is surprising to a lot of people, particularly Thorne, because. "Didn't you grow up on a farm?"  
But she does not care. She. Will. Not. Move.  
Wolf, still on his military waking regiman, is always up before their roosters, poking at her sides, nuzzling into her neck, rolling and prodding and nudging her awake before she's ready.  
"Damn you, Zee, I'm sleeping." Scarlet complains. "Go play by yourself."  
Golden autumn sunlight glows lazily through the windowpanes, and Scarlet can see their rows of flourishing crops, can see the pink and blue sky and smell burnt eggs downstairs where Wolf has tried to make himself breakfast.  
Scarlet makes a show of trying to pull the blankets over her head, and Wolf hums in her ear, happy and sweet.  
He can never wait to begin their day together, no matter how slow or staid it may be.  
Wolf never tires of their time together.

* * *

Cress has no sense of direction. It's a real issue.  
It gets to a point where she has to draw herself a map just to navigate the Rampion.  
"You couldn't find your way out of a shoebox." Thorne accuses.  
"I'm navigationally challanged." Cress corrects him primly.

* * *

"It's called 'nail polish.'" Winter explains, carefully wiping away a smudge of pink from Cinder's broken nails. "It'll make your nails look pretty."  
Cinder flexes the fingers of her titanium hand, patiently watching her friend sprinkle glitter over Cinder's own torn, short fingernails. "Well, not exactly pretty. It's not magic."  
"At least you're honest."  
"Cinder, I love you. But we're going to have a serious discusion about your cutical care after you become queen of the Eastern Commonwealth. Pass me that file?"

* * *

Cress is shot in the neck during the battle on Luna. The bullet goes in just beneath her jaw, rebounding off her spine and cracking three vertebrae.  
She lives, miraculously. Doesn't even have a scar.

* * *

Jacin keeps this picture in his wallet, right behind his keycards and credits. It's faded and yellowing at the edges, but the colors are bright- it's of him and Winter, when he was six and she was four.  
They're curled up together on the couch-she has her stuffed bunny by the ear and her head is on his stomach, and six-year-old Jacin is just lying there, smiling down at her, not thinking about her bony elbows or sharp knees or how the weight against his chest was making it hard to breathe. He just didn't want to move. Doesn't want to let her go.  
He still doesn't want to let her go.

* * *

"That is sad." Scarlet observes, jabbing her teaspoon violently into the rock-solid carton of vanilla ice cream.  
"I know." Cress bobs her head, being painstakingly careful as she dips her little spoon back into the carton and pecks at the icecream, only managing to make crescent-shaped dents.  
So they're out of spoons and Carswell Thorne is a heartbreaker. What was Scarlet supposed to do, just send Cress home?  
Cress shifts closer to her on the couch, glaring at the carpet. "I mean, I don't know- does he really mean that, or is he just being modest? He says he isn't good enough for me, is that just an excuse?" Cress hiccups and shoves away her bangs, taking another bites. "This icecream is really good."  
"I know, right?"

* * *

The woods around them are full of chatter, of birds crooning and leaves rustling and the gentle fall of deer hooves against the ground. But it all fades to silence within Wolf's mind, and the wolf inside of him knows the danger in allowing himself to be distracted.  
Scarlet may be the greatest violation of that rule, but Wolf can never find it in himself to care.  
The forest stretches beyond them in all directions, no landmarks to be seen through the endless trees, countless possible paths to choose from.  
"I've missed home." Scarlet draws in as much air as her little lungs can take, lacing Wolf's fingers through her own contentedly.  
The direction they wander in matters little, Wolf realizes, as Scarlet swings their hands back and forth. Her company is the important thing.

* * *

The ocean is a shock of cold as it hits Cress's shins. She squeals, drawing back, but Thorne's hand is firm around her wrist, tugging her further into the water.  
"C'mon, youre not missing this!" Thorne grins, and that smile's enough to melt Cress's resistance.  
Right up until a particularly menacing wave soaks her all the way to her thighs.  
Cress shrieks, and Thorne's laughing, so at home with her arms thrown around his shoulders.

* * *

Kai and Cinder's marriage is... unique.  
According to the Eastern Commonwealth's legal system, the two of them are married.  
According to Kai and Cinder, they are both really good friends.  
According to these horoscope charts that Iko keeps shoving under their noses at every opportunity, they are star-destined soulmates.

* * *

Cress kind of needs a place to live. Both Winter and Cinder have offered her rooms in their palaces- stars bless them, but they just don't understand.  
She needs to do something for herself. She needs to be self-sufficient and capable and mature, or whatever that confidence article on the net described.  
Thorne calls her every few hours to make sure she doesnt need anything, that she's okay, and no, shes not being mugged or murdered in an ally. It's kind of sweet, in a really ominous way.

* * *

Cinder realizes that Kai is struggling to fit in with their band of misfits shortly after breakfast of his first morning aboard the Rampion. She's forcing herself to choke down a cup of really cheep, watery coffee because she seriously needs the caffeine, while he tries to have a civil conversation with Thorne. It is a glorious failure.  
Halfway through another fascinating story about Thorne's adventures at a French strip club, Cinder comes to Kai's rescue, sensing his discomfort. "Thorne, I think the bathroom is open, if you want to get in before me."  
Kai had better appreciate this sacrifice, because when Thorne hijacks the bathroom he spends some serious time primping. Normally, Cinder never gives up her hot water claim.  
The emperor had better be grateful, is all she has to say, when Thorne leaps at the chance  
"You'll get used to him." She promises Kai, rubbing his arm soothingly. He looks a little less uneasy.

* * *

There's nothing like Roux at twilight. Sure, it's cold, but that's what Wolf is for. (Keeping her warm.) The sky starts off this gorgeous mix of rosy gold on the horizon, blending into inky blue above their heads. There are scattered clouds and stars, and a low orange mist hangs thickly over the orchards.  
Aside from Roux, the farmhouse is falling apart almost faster than Wolf can put it back together again, but Scarlet likes it that way. Likes the creaking boards beneath her feet, likes the smell of dry wood and the quiet gray paint flaking off the walls and ceilings.  
She likes it best at twilight, lying in the ancient porch swing with Wolf nuzzling into her neck and the wind toying with her curls.

* * *

Jacin doesn't like it when people call Winter crazy.  
Which is odd, because Jacin's not particularly tolerant of her- he snaps at her for stupid things like pressing random buttons on the Rampion she's not supposed to or wandering off by herself in a busy crowd. He rolls his eyes at her antics and riddles, mocks her for her childish demenour and old-fashioned way of speaking.  
Still. First time Thorne called her crazy, Jacin blackened the man's eye.

* * *

"No."  
"Carswell..." Cress says in this pleading, sing-song voice she has only just discovered gets him to do whatever she wants.  
"No. We are not getting a cat. It'll just get hair all over everything."  
Cress pouts, rocking back on her heels. She's kind of impressed. This is the first time Thorne has actually managed to deny her something she truely wants.  
"Please?" She tries again. "I'll take care of it. Think- we could get a baby! A baby kitten- Carswell!"  
"No." He says, like that's the end of it.  
They have a black and gray kitten by the end of the week. Cress has christened it 'Itty-Bit,' which as far as Thorne is concerned is animal cruelty. But Spades, she does look cute with the little cat curled up on her lap.

* * *

Iko and Jacin don't really get along.  
Which isn't saying much- Jacin doesn't actually 'get along' with anybody except Winter, and he's even snippy with her.  
Iko wasn't kidding, Cinder realizes, about cutting all the hot water off for Jacin's showers, when he storms out of his bunk, hair damp and shivering, cursing the 'lunatic ship' all the way down the hall.

* * *

Winter has so many animals. Some people have a space devoted specifically for their pets- a corner to keep a birdcage, a cat's pillow, a fish bowl. Winter has a whole zoo. And what's mind-blowing about it is how good she is with all of them, how she can tame a completely wild animal and teach them to come when called.  
However, Cinder will conceed that one of those monkeys does have it out for Thorne.

* * *

Cinder and Kai both have busy schedules. Which, in retrospect, they probably should have been prepared for- they're ruling a country, after all, and sometimes Kai can't make it to dinner or Cinder doesn't have time to spend the afternoon with him wandering around the marketplace.  
Sometimes it feels like their only means of communication are using Iko or Nainsi to send messages.  
Kai comes up with a solution rather quickly. They meet every morning at seven o'clock in the gardens, carrying their breakfast with them. Bagels, toast, fruit or pastry- something handheld and a thermos of tea or coffee with them, they congregate at the edge of the pool. They spend their time tossing bits of food into the koi pond for the fish and talking about everything and nothing.  
It's the most perfect twenty-five minutes of Kai's day.

* * *

Cress loves clothes. She and Iko never tire of the millions of catalouges and magazines, circling their favorite styles and dresses and bickering over which color looks best. Endless patterns, colors and fabrics, clipped out and pasted onto empty sheets of paper. Cress has worn the same three dresses all her life- she figures a little shopping is in order, anyway.

* * *

After they rescue Scarlet, Cinder observes, she and Wolf don't really seem to get out of their bed much except when Wolf wants to eat half the contents of the fridge or so they can steal ALL of the hot water with their ridiculously long showers. Cinder doesn't comment, but that's just because she's a good friend, who is polite enough not to mention that this ship's ventilation means they can hear _everything_. Thorne thinks it's hilarious, and "good for them," Cress is mortified, Iko pretends she can't hear anything, and Jacin looks ready to murder someone.  
Cinder isn't entirely convinced Winter has any idea what's going on.

* * *

There are a lot of things Cinder doesn't remember. She can't remember her mother's face or her father's voice or the times she played with Winter and Jacin as a child.  
Cinder still remembers what it felt like to be burned alive.  
When she tells Levanna Blackburn this, the woman laughs hysterically. Even with Jacin's hunting knife still plunged into her heart, the blade grating against her ribs. Her eyes are wild and there's blood splattering her lips, but still Levanna laughs.  
It makes it hard to feel any remorse. Cinder can only feel relief that she wasn't the one to do it- Jacin was the one who killed the queen, in retaliation for the attempts on Winter's life.  
She isn't sorry. But she still shudders to look at her aunt's writhing, twitching body. To think that this woman has scarred her so deeply- left a permenant mark on Cinder's body in her quest for power, marks Cinder will bear for the rest of her life.  
Her first memories are of flames, and Levanna dies with laughter on her lips.

* * *

"You're cute when you have no idea what you're doing." Cinder teases, guiding Kai's hands over the mess of cables and shorted-out wires.  
"Yeah, I'm adorable." Kai deadpans. "What am I doing?"  
Cinder bends his resiliant fingers around a gear in the back of the android's head. "You're learning basic mechanics." She presses a quick kiss to his jaw, because his cheek is smeared with grease. "Now connect those two wires. And don't mess with that third cable, that's the central processor."  
"The what? How do you do all this?" Kai sounds incredulous, staring blankly at the ancient android model and shaking his head. He smiles at her in tentative admiration.  
"I'm brilliant." Cinder shrugs.  
"You kind of are." Kai says.  
She can't blush, but she has a feeling he can tell how giddy the comment makes her anyways.

* * *

Wolf and Scarlet never get married. It seems kind of pointless- they don't need to. There's nothing about a white dress or calligrified invitations or an arch of roses is going to make them any more closely bound than they already are.  
They are, after all, Alpha mates, and no ceremony seems neccessary. They're bound for life. No contract, no vows, no preenups. What they have doesn't need validation. It's unconditional, unconventional, and everchanging.  
Winter's the only one who ever really understands it. She tries to explain the concept of their relationship to the group once at a gathering, but she does it in that cryptic, metephorical way she has that doesn't make sense to anyone but Winter. Jacin and Cinder have long-since stopped trying to translate for her.  
Anyway. Scarlet and Wolf do not need to have a wedding, no matter how Iko may whine.

* * *

"Oh, Spades, Aces and Stars." Cinder snaps, wringing her good hand before putting her sore, shocked finger in her mouth. "The whole cartriage is fried- we're going to have to replace it."  
"Are you alright?" Kai springs up from where he's been sitting on an old crate, watching her work.  
She smiles at him, wiping her bloody finger on her jeans. "Better than Thorne's going to be when we tell him how expensive these new parts he needs are going to be."  
"Are you sure you're okay? What's wrong?"  
"Oh, it's nothing." She assures him. "But we're going to need to tear that engine apart, just as soon as we can land. Cables to the main router are dead, and if that was all that was wrong we'd be fine. But with the backup generator's connection to life-support faltering, it's too risky to make any detours before we land on Luna- _Stars,_ Thorne is going to freak out when I tell him. Want to come with me?" She wipes her grimy fingers on her jeans and looks up to see him beaming down at her. "What?" She shoves a lock of hair off her forehead.  
"You're so beautiful when I have no idea what you're saying." Kai says around a smile.

* * *

Winter and Levanna have a complicated relationship.  
Levanna has no great love of her stepdaughter, and the same goes for Winter. But as jealous and cruel as the queen may be, she'll admit she's attached to the girl.  
Not attached enough to let her live. Just enough to feel a bit guilty, a bit remorseful about putting the girl down.  
Levanna holds out the apple, and Winter glares at her through narrowed, intelligent eyes. "I will spare them." Levanna promises in a raspy voice that is not her own. "One bite. I will let Jacin Clay and Princess Selene leave here with their lives, if only you will comply."  
"You won't." Winter all but growls, and Levanna feels a prickle of amusement. She always knew the girl was clever. But what choice does she have now?  
Levanna watches and waits as the girl's blood-red lips curve around a bite of the apple.

* * *

"Jacin, do you love me?" Winter asks quietly.  
The drowsy, late-night silence lingers between them, still as the mist that clings to the damp grass beneath their backs.  
"Winter..." Jacin draws in a deep breath of Earthern air, always sharp and clean in his lungs.  
"I love you." She says, before he can answer. "I love you a lot."  
"Winter." He says again, more insistantly this time, and takes her hand. He strokes the curve of her thumb, rubbing the split skin over her knuckles that used to be healthy and soft. Shifts on the blanket so he's facing her, pulling her hand up to his mouth, and Winter's pretty eyes flutter closed when he kisses her hand.  
"Remember when we were little?" She asks drowsliy, pulling her hand free of his grasp and pushing it up into his now-short blond hair. He nods. "Remember how easy that was?"  
On a stupid impulse, he kisses her. She tastes like sugar and vanilla and something flowery, and Jacin's suddenly very aware of how chapped his own lips are- probably still torn from where Cinder punched him on the Rampion with her metal fist, at the android's suggestion.  
"Yes."  
It's not enough to say yes. He wants her to hear him say it- wants to hear himself say it. "I love you."

* * *

It's their last day on Earth before they return to Luna and the chaos of political heigharchy that is sure to ensue the minute of their arrival.  
Kai's pretty sure the lake on the east end of the palace is purely decorative and definitely not for swimming in- if his mother were alive, she'd go balistic.  
But it's hot, about as hot as it ever gets up in the mountains, and their options are either splashing around in an off-limits lake or being in a stuffy conference room for the rest of the morning.  
So, as Cinder put it, "Screw the prep-meetings, let's do something useless and unproductive."  
Best idea she's ever had, Kai decides, and Cinder shrieks with glee as he kicks water at her face.

* * *

The day Everet died, Levanna locked herself in her room and screamed and cried hysterically for hours. She was inconsolable. The royal physicians were afraid she would hurt someone.  
Levanna refused to let anyone enter her chambers, before she heard the little girl's tiny rap at her door, heard the sweet, chirpy, utterly annoying voice, thick with tears, begging her stepmother to let her in.  
Levanna still remembers- that was the only time she embraced Winter, the only time she let the girl see her without her elaborate glamour. Red-eyed and trembling, she took the child into her arms and they collapsed onto their knees on the carpet, holding each other and crying, rocking back and forth and letting out sobs the wracked their whole bodies. Their crowns slipped free from their hair and rolled onto the carpet, but neither woman nor child noticed.

* * *

"I've never done anything like this before." Kai admits, trying to immitate Cinder's motions as she straps a pistol to her thigh, hiding darts and projectiles in the lining of her jacket. "I mean- I want to help, but it's worth noting that the closest I've ever come to seeing combat is a failed dodgeball game with my cousins when I was nine."  
Cinder snickers, but not unkindly. "Don't worry." She says. "You might surprise yourself. And at any rate," She leans over and helps him adjust the stunner he's struggling to fit into his holster, "Thorne and I won't let anything near you."

* * *

Kai was origionally very jealous of Thorne. It was something he was ashamed of, something he'd have taken to his grave. But it was an understandable emotion- aside from being Cinder's partner in crime for several months while Kai tried to hunt them down, Thorne was undeniably handsome, capable, heroic, and he could handle a firearm without misfiring and nearly taking Iko's head off (Kai swears he'll never live that one down.)  
But after bearing witness to Cinder and Thorne's legendary morning battles, trying to race one another to claim the bathroom in the morning ("You'd better come out of there looking like a super model, _Captain_," Cinder had snapped) or the way they hollered at each other while going over repairs for the Rampion ("Which wires are we talking about, Princess?" "The red one, Thorne- oh for all the stars, I'm pointing right at it- that one, there. No, I said _don't_ cut that one- Thorne!") Well. Kai's feeling considerably less threatened by Carswell Thorne in the end.

* * *

Kai and Cinder's wedding vows are a little out of the oridnary. They involve promises from Cinder to never again shoot the groom in the chest with a heavy tranquelizer unless it is 'absolutely neccessary.' Kai, similarly promises the bride he will never again declare her an outlaw or try to have her arrested, as long as it's not in the best interest of his country.

Unconventional, maybe, but the scandalized looks of the nobles around them are enough to keep both the Emperor and the Princess entertained for the rest of the ceremony.


End file.
